Postgame: Worley made his pitch, but Scott hit it anyway

PORT CHARLOTTE, FLA. -- Vance Worley got the pitch right where he wanted it. With an 0-2 count on Luke Scott, the Twins' righthander tailed a sinking fastball in on Scott's hands.

"It did what it was supposed to," Worley said. "It backed [Scott] up."

Unfortunately, the Tampa Bay designated hitter also dropped the barrel of his bat and made good contact with the ball. It lifted high in the air to deep right, where right fielder Joe Benson made a leaping attempt to keep it from carrying over the fence.

He came awfully close.

"He jumped up, [showed] pretty good ability to try and catch it," manager Ron Gardenhire said after the Twins rallied for a 6-4 victory over Tampa Bay. "He was over the fence."

So was the ball, however, Scott's first home run of the spring and one of four extra-base hits Worley allowed.

"I didn't think it was going to cary that far. The sound of the bat fooled me -- I was like, 'Man he got a lot of that one.' But the way he swung, he was kind of falling backward. No way he got that one," Worley said. "Somehow he got it. I tip my cap to him. He won't get that pitch again."

Despite the long hits, the righthander limited the damage by forcing a pair of double plays, and Gardenhire said it was an encouraging outing.

"His arm angle was good. The ball was going down," Gardenhire said. "I thought his ball had a good angle."

Newer Post

Phil Miller covered three seasons of Twins baseball, but that was at a different ballpark for a different newspaper. Now Miller returns to the baseball beat after joining the Star Tribune as the Gopher football writer in 2010, and he won't miss the dingy dome for a minute. In addition to the Twins and Gophers, Miller covered the Utah Jazz and the NBA for six years at The Salt Lake Tribune.